Scientists Find Heart Stem Cells - Breakthrough

Scientists have identified a cardiac stem cell that gives rise to all of the major cell types in the human heart. The find opens the way to using
patients' own cells to heal their damaged hearts.

The cells in question express a protein, called Islet 1, which is present in the early stages of fetal heart formation. In recent years, scientists
have identified the cells in embryonic mouse hearts. And now, a team in the laboratory of Kenneth Chien, director of the Cardiovascular Research
Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, has found the same cell type in human fetal hearts.

Ultimately, researchers may be able to use the cells to grow human "heart parts" such as strips of heart muscle or a valve on scaffolds that could
be inserted into patients, Chien says.

This breakthrough could be what heart patients and doctors alike have been hoping for. This will allow scientist grow parts and help take time of the
waiting list for patients in need of heart surgery.

I just wish it had come along before my father died of a heart attack. Ah well... Wish in one hand, s# in the other....

Thanks for this marvelous news!

well...if this works. .. it will take a LONG LOMNG LONG LONG LOMG LON G time before it starts being used effective

Perhaps, but our grandchildren will thank us. And their grandchildren will thank them for the advances they make. That's how real progress is made;
not by what we can see now, but what our children can see in the future.

Originally posted by Faiol
well...if this works. .. it will take a LONG LOMNG LONG LONG LOMG LON G time before it starts being used effective

Given the exponential explosion in the rate of discovery, R&D, and finished product... I'm gonna guess it is far closer than you think.

We'll see, won't we. (Unless they suppress it... All it takes is not hitting the tipping point in awareness, and it, like the fact that teeth can
be stimulated to regrow - as long as a root is still there - electrically, will fall into obscurity.)

This is completely wrong. Haven't you heard of bone marrow transplants? Hematopoietic stem cells are the whole reason you need them; they migrate
to the bone marrow and allow the recipient to regenerate blood cells he ordinarily couldn't due to diseased marrow.

You really don't know what the hell you're talking about, sorry. This stuff is very promising indeed.

I don't think you've done any research, otherwise you'd know that what you propose would preclude organ transplantation - which occurs across
family lines. We are not singular organisms, nor are our organs singular chunks of tissues. We're swarms of billions of microscopic organisms (most
of which don't even carry human DNA) that communicate with each other via chemical signals and receptor proteins. It's when new organisms or
collections of organisms in significant numbers are introduced to the body that don't have complimentary protein receptors which leads to an immune
response and tissue rejection. In some cases can compensate by either suppressing the immune response or by training it to accept the chemical signals
from the new organ - even if that organ comes from a different species altogether!

The most common form of xenotransplantation comes from pigs (especially heart valves), as their morphology is rather similar to ours and doesn't
carry the moral stigma that using closer primate relatives does - since pigs are seen as a butcher animal anyhow. It's even been demonstrated in
divisions as large as fish to primate with pancreatic tissues. However, Xenotransplatation isn't widespread and when used, generally it's used for
temporary solutions. One of the major risk factors involved is susceptibility to retroviruses and other pathogens which affect the donor tissue that
we may pick up and carry, or already present in the transplant organ, but that don't as of yet have the ability to affect human responses. It also
acutely increases the risk of pathogens adapting to be transmittable to humans, and then transmittable from human to human.

So... your worry about stem cells is moot, and far from impossible. Even if it were, you don't necessarily need embryonic stem cells, as we can
return human skin cells to a stem cell state. As well as other cells. The process isn't perfected and it's an obtuse step - especially when stem
cells are needed in larger numbers. This isn't only demonstrably evident, but it's in practice since the Bush Administration. The Pentagon is
helping to fund private organizations to regrow ears, noses, skin, etc, for disfigured war veterans and victims of IEDs.

Also... some may find this interesting. I thought we already identified the Heart Stem cell, as experiments such as shown below have been ongoing for
a few years now... even if not in America or with Embryonic Stem Cells. Basically, if you're heart is damaged, they can hook you up to an artificial
heart or a temporary donor heart while they completely strip your own heart of cells - down to the cartilaginous tissue, spray it with stem cells, and
regrow your heart anew.

... and it won't take a "long long time" for it to be used in humans. Donor stem cell regeneration is already in clinical trials (i.e., it's been
done on a few people who are under observation) for bladders, trachea, teeth, etc. The first successful heart transplants were done in the late
1960's, and became common practice over the next decade. Though it has been stymied by the fact that heart transplants can only come from a donor
after they have died - and only if it's in good condition. Major pushes in the 80's and 90's to push organ donation helped, but weren't providing
the organs in the quantities needed. Transplant recipients often died while on a waiting list. This is only one facet of why stem cell research is so
important, and why ignorantly claiming that it's science fiction - or writing off a current stumbling block as "impossible", when clearly the
evidence indicates otherwise is highly immoral IMO.

We'll see, won't we. (Unless they suppress it... All it takes is not hitting the tipping point in awareness, and it, like the fact that teeth can be
stimulated to regrow - as long as a root is still there - electrically, will fall into obscurity.)

You can't suppress it. The one thing humanity has never been able to do with our ambition and our imagination, is to suppress progress. Even while
Europe was languishing in the Dark Ages, it was still making other forms of progress - and the Islamic Golden Age carried on after the Hellenistic
Era. When Bush put a moratorium on embryonic stem cells, Europe and Asia continued on with the research.

Ever since cloning was demonstrated and popularized, people have feared human cloning - and almost all industrialized countries have banned it. Yet,
even though the cloning of humans is banned - the research carries on. We didn't need to clone an entirely new person... because we already know that
we can. We understand how to do it... and we know that human clones already walk among us, what we consider identical twins. Why invite moral and
ethical condemnation for an experiment nature already provides, and there is no moral or ethical ban on the study of identical twins.

Human cloning of already living individuals is fully underway - but in part, rather than in whole. This is what Stem Cell research is. The cloning of
new organs and tissues, parts of you, to replace the old and dysfunctional parts.

The reason why the old sci-fi scare of a mad scientist or rouge government building a clone army hasn't occurred yet isn't because we have
artificially halted progress... it's because it's impossible logistically and economically. A clone of someone is just a copy of their body, not
their minds and individually which develop with the brain both placentally and as the child grows through puberty... and beyond. The winner in the
argument between nature vs. nurture is... both. You do have certain predispositions and inherent programming that you're born with - but it's only
a rough draft. A precursor. It is changed and modified by environment and experiment both in the womb and throughout the rest of your life. This is
why you can find identical twins separated at birth who share a lot of personality traits, but are divided on morals, opinions, religions, and
political affiliations. Despite being part of the same egg at one time, they are still two very different people.

Why would any nation or organization spend the billions needed to clone an army, raise them, educate them, feed them, cloth them, etc... and yet still
end up with the individuality and free thought you find in general population at large?

It's really not even an ethical question anymore, IMO. Nobody would stop to ask, "Should I?" in this regard, but rather "what's the point?".

Scientists have identified a cardiac stem cell that gives rise to all of the major cell types in the human heart. The find opens the way to using
patients' own cells to heal their damaged hearts.

The cells in question express a protein, called Islet 1, which is present in the early stages of fetal heart formation. In recent years, scientists
have identified the cells in embryonic mouse hearts. And now, a team in the laboratory of Kenneth Chien, director of the Cardiovascular Research
Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, has found the same cell type in human fetal hearts.

Ultimately, researchers may be able to use the cells to grow human "heart parts" such as strips of heart muscle or a valve on scaffolds that could
be inserted into patients, Chien says.

This breakthrough could be what heart patients and doctors alike have been hoping for. This will allow scientist grow parts and help take time of the
waiting list for patients in need of heart surgery.

I am going to use this technology to grow a second heart, permitting me to run faster and longer, like some kind of futuristic superman. After
installed, I will use it as an excuse to berate normal people or old-fashioned athletes with only a single heart. A second heart and other redundant
organs will be luxury reserved for the ultra wealthy. Muhahahhaha

Originally posted by Lasheic
You can't suppress it. The one thing humanity has never been able to do with our ambition and our imagination, is to suppress progress. Even while
Europe was languishing in the Dark Ages, it was still making other forms of progress - and the Islamic Golden Age carried on after the Hellenistic
Era. When Bush put a moratorium on embryonic stem cells, Europe and Asia continued on with the research.

I suppose you have a point...to a point. But I have seen so many advances spring up in the news, only to never be heard of again. The teeth issue is
the most prominent one I can think of off the top of my head.

They stimulated the jaw and it was like losing baby teeth and growing a new tooth to replace the damaged one. This came out of the U of Saskatchewan
a couple of years ago. Do we hear anything about it? No. That would cost the dentists too much money.

I'm just saying that if they feel a need to suppress (and in this case, since it would cost lots of money, they probably won't suppress it - I
admit that my comment was motivated by the bitterness I feel from seeing some things suppressed), they can suppress by severely limiting awareness.

Stem cell research represents an area of medicine that can, potentially, make life much more enjoyable and longer lasting for millions of people. The
only people who think it is bad are scripture-mongering religious fanatics, who don't understand it at all. Are you one of those people? Cutting
funding was a terrible thing and now we are 5 or 6 years behind where we should be.

To me it will be like the cancer treatment that tests started on last year.

The FDA comes in and approves human trials on say 1,000 people (can't remember the total number thought 1k though) over a 20 year period, even though
the treatment has completely eliminated all cancerous cells in every animal it was subjected to during the animal trials.

Sure you need human trials but what about the 1+million people that are going to die from it anyway over the next 20 years. All we do is suppress the
treatment phase long enough to manipulate certain drug companies to get on board with the new treatment and lose as little as possible money during
the transfer phase.

In other words keep selling the stuff that doesn't work long enough to deplete it and introduce the new stuff.

It'll happen but not with in our life time.

By the way you can get the same cancer treatments in smaller countries who have been ridiculed as being home brew remedies when in fact it's using
the same process the FDA authorized for human trials in the US in 2008.

Or how about the 2 scientists that claim to have cured every animal of aids in their laboratory and are told there is not enough money to do human
trials so they can not continue. So I predict after the cancer one is out, then the AIDS one will come and then after that we will see the organ
repairs come.

If I were a scientist, dedicated to human health care, I would be looking for the cause. Heart disease is happening in perfectly healthy people, so
all the excuses about poor diet, etc, isn't working. Find the cause, and you've found a cure. Not just growing a new heart. WTF?? What a bunch of
freaks.

Originally posted by Udontknowme
If I were a scientist, dedicated to human health care, I would be looking for the cause. Heart disease is happening in perfectly healthy people, so
all the excuses about poor diet, etc, isn't working. Find the cause, and you've found a cure. Not just growing a new heart. WTF?? What a bunch of
freaks.

Yes, but meanwhile finding corrective methods is a good path to also pursue.

Originally posted by Udontknowme
If I were a scientist, dedicated to human health care, I would be looking for the cause. Heart disease is happening in perfectly healthy people, so
all the excuses about poor diet, etc, isn't working. Find the cause, and you've found a cure. Not just growing a new heart. WTF?? What a bunch of
freaks.

Yes, but meanwhile finding corrective methods is a good path to also pursue.

Second line, because I have made my point.

Is it? I mean, if EVERYONE was working on the cause, leading to a permanent cure, wouldn't that be more worthy?

Corrective methods make more money for the health care industry. No wonder that they are the industry with the highest need for employees. It's ALL
about corrective methods.

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